Production mail systems, such as the Mail Center 2000.TM. mailpiece production system are well known. Generally, these systems are used by organizations (financial institutions, utility companies, insurance companies, etc.) that produce a large volume of mailings. The typical production mail system includes a data processing system, a printer system and an inserter system. The data processing system produces a plurality of documents intended for respective recipients. The printer system generates hard copies or printouts of the documents. The inserter system assembles the documents, folds the documents, stuffs the documents into envelopes to create a mailpiece and otherwise prepares the mailpieces for deposit with the postal authority for delivery.
Inserter systems capable of generating over 10,000 mailpieces per hour are well known in the art. Often times, the inputs to the inserter system are computer generated and the printed documents contains information that is intended for a particular addressee. Depending upon the type of printer system being employed, the documents may originate from a stack of cut sheets or from a web of forms. It is the function of the inserter system to accept the documents and produce the individual mailpieces that correspond to each document. To accomplish this, the typical inserter includes a variety of modules for performing different tasks on the documents passing through the inserter, such as: various web handling modules (slitters, cutters and bursters) for separating the continuous forms into singular or discrete documents, a sheet feeder module for feeding individual cut sheets, an accumulator module for assembling the sheets and/or form documents into a collation, a folder module for folding the collation into a desired configuration (Z-fold, C-fold, half fold), a conveyor/staging module for transporting and queuing the collation, a plurality of enclosure feeder modules for assembling and adding a packet of enclosures to the collation, an insert station module for inserting the collation into an envelope, and a control system to synchronize the operation of the overall inserter system to assure that the collations are properly assembled. Examples of such inserter systems are the 8 Series.TM. and 9 Series.TM. inserter systems available from Pitney Bowes, Inc. of Stamford, Conn.
Typically, information for control of such inserter systems is read from a control document by a scanner associated with the most upstream module in the inserter system. The control document is generally an address bearing document and contains information that is specific to a particular addressee. Additionally, each control document contains control information for instructing the downstream modules as to how to assemble a particular mailpiece. Once scanned, the control information is transmitted to the control system of the inserter system which monitors the processing of the collation through each module. Generally, the control document includes a barcode type control code, or other machine readable symbology, that defines: the number of forms or sheets to be accumulated into the collation, the number of enclosures from each of the enclosure feeder modules to be assembled to the collation and information for other purposes such as the selection of appropriate postage. A more detailed description of inserter systems including bar code scanning may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,008,520 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,157,243.
It is also known to print selected messages (sometimes referred to as ad slogans, although such messages are not necessarily restricted to advertisements) on mailpieces along with a postal indicia using a postage meter incorporated into the inserter system. Generally, the message bears no relation to the postal indicia. Alternatively, a printer separate from the postage meter may be employed for printing the messages on the mailpieces.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,554 teaches a postage meter that allows the postage meter manufacturer to broker the use of advertising space by third parties on the mailpieces. In concept, a third party advertiser may wish to take advantage of the space on the outgoing mailpieces from a particular postage meter user to advertise its own products and/or services or communicate some other type of message. In this system, a message the content of which originates from a third party is stored electronically within the postage meter. The postage meter keeps a count of the number of times that the message is printed in conjunction with the postal indicia. This count is then used by the data center to provide a subsidy to the postage meter user during a subsequent billing cycle and is correspondingly also used by the data center to invoice the third party advertiser.
Although this brokering system represents a new business opportunity for postage meter manufacturers, it suffers from certain drawbacks and disadvantages. First, the third party advertiser cannot exercise any control over when the message is dispensed. Thus, if the message is time sensitive, then the relevance of the message may be lost after a certain date and the third party advertiser would be compelled to pay for advertising that was not effective. For example, advertisements directed to promotions that have expiration dates (rebate programs, concert tickets, limited time offers, political election/other voting inducements, etc.) are useless once the relevant time period has passed. Second, the third party advertiser cannot exercise any control over the number of messages dispensed. Thus, if the third party advertiser allocated a fixed advertising budget and accordingly only wanted to pay for a limited number of mailpieces containing the message, then the third party advertiser may be compelled to pay for advertising that was not wanted if the postage meter user generates increased mail volume over that which was anticipated. Third, the third party advertiser cannot exercise any control over who receives the message. Thus, the third party advertiser has no assurance that a target audience would be reached. As one example, advertisements (e.g. sports related or hair loss, as examples) intended primarily for males may not be relevant if the recipient of the mailpiece from the postage meter user was a female. Fourth, the third party advertiser cannot exercise any control over the geographic reach of the message. Here again, the third party advertiser has no assurance that the target audience would be reached. For example, advertisements (e.g. local car dealership or cleaning service, as examples) intended for a certain limited geographic region would not be relevant if the recipient of the mailpiece from the postage meter user was located many miles away from the certain limited geographic region. As a related example, advertisements intended for the certain limited geographic region on mailpieces originating from outside of the certain limited geographic region would not benefit from the increased good will of being associated with a sender located in the certain limited geographic region.
Although this brokering system represents a new opportunity for users to subsidize the costs associated with preparing and sending mailpieces, it suffers from certain drawbacks and disadvantages. First, the user may not want the recipient gaining the impression that the user endorses the third party message. Thus, the user may not want to be associated with certain types of third party messages. For instance, political messages, messages from competitor's and the like may not be appropriate for the user's mailpiece. Second, dilution of any user message is likely to occur if third party messages appear. Thus, the effectiveness of the user message is reduced. Third, some recipients may experience a loss of intimacy with the user due to the appearance of third party messages. This may negatively impact the good will of the user. Fourth, the user may experience extended transaction times for securing and printing postage. This leads to increased operating costs which partially offsets the benefits associated with any corresponding subsidies.
As described above, the effectiveness of the third party messages printed on mailpieces is low. Because of the above drawbacks and disadvantages, the fees that third party advertisers are willing to pay postage meter manufacturers are relatively low. In turn, the subsidies that the postage meter manufacturer are able to pass along to the postage meter user are correspondingly relatively low. Thus, in the absence of a meaningful economic incentive there is little motivation for third party advertisers and postage meter users to participate in the above described system for placing third party advertising on mailpieces.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved system that allows the production mailer to take advantage of allowing advertising by third parties on its mailpieces. More particularly, there is a need for a production mail system that places the messages on mailpieces in a more effective manner so that third party advertisers are more likely to reach their target audiences. In this manner, the third party advertisers would be willing to pay higher fees resulting in an increased economic incentive for third party advertisers and postage meter users to participate.